Method and system for electronically tracking financial transactions

Abstract

A system and method automatically enters financial transactions such as credit card transactions into a financial account stored in a computer. A financial statement incorporating the transactions is provided in an electronic form understood by the computer, such as a computer data file, for updating the financial account. For a credit card account, the electronic statement includes one or more credit card transactions such as purchases. Before accepting the electronic statement, the process verifies that the electronic form of the statement has not been altered since its creation and therefore correctly reflects transactions in the original statement. In the process of entering the transactions, they are tracked by automatically assigning them to expense categories. First the process determines from the electronic statement if a payee for a transaction is of record in the computer and, if so, assigns the transaction to a category already associated with the payee. If not, the process next determines from the electronic statement a merchant category code such as a Standard Industry Code (SIC). The merchant category code is associated with a category recognized by the computer, and the transaction is assigned to the recognized category. If no recognized category exists, the process prompts the user for a category to which the transaction can be assigned.